How to throw a SURPRISE Pary!

For the newbies around here, Nathans birthday was last Thursday, April 18th and I planned a surprise party for him! Currently, he’s getting his Doctorate degree in Physical Therapy and has one year left, and this May is his last week of classes in Nashville. From there his entire class will go on a year of clinical’s all over the states, so what better time for a surpise party?!! I’m going to walk you through the steps to plan a successful surprise party and make sure your bestie doesn’t find out!

Select a Location

• Since our house is pretty small, and I knew we would have more than 20 people, I chose to ask one of our best friends if we could throw the party at their house. Thankfully they said yes, and we had the location to the party! When planning your own Surprise Party, make sure you have a few key elements: plenty of space inside, room for games, parking for guests, and seating for half the guests.

Create a Facebook Event

• By making a facebook event, its an easy place for all the guests to check-in on updates for the party. For the party I threw, I did not know a few of the people coming and adding everyone on Facebook made it super easy for guests to invite others! The location of the party was pinned on the group, and the night of the party I sent updates on how close we were to arrive!

Purchase Decorations & Food

• Personally, I love having a wall for photos! I set up two easy spots with oversized balloons (numbers in 24 and Happy Birthday stringer) that were both only $6 from Target. I also bought a ton of white and gold balloons that I spread around the house to keep things festive. Buying a helium tank was the #1 tip I would suggest for a quick and easy setup. This saved me so much time, and was only $15!
  
• Depending on the number of guests you are planning on having can fluctuate what options are realistic. After finding out we would have 25-40 people, I asked in the Facebook group if everyone could bring a small snack and I purchased 4 pizzas to be delivered while we were on our way. While setting up, I also picked up snacks from Costco including a fruit tray, mini cinnamon rolls, cookies, and the birthday cake. I threw in a few 12 packs of beer, and again asked everyone to BYOB so there would be plenty of alcohol available!
  

Create perfect Cover-Up

• Having great friends made this step possible! Colton, Savanna & I have had couples game night in the past, so we chose to tell Nathan we would be going over to their house for board game night! Colton sent texts earlier in the week asking if we had time, and the date was set! He ended up letting Nathan know he invited a few other friends from school, which would explain the cars out front. Nathan didn’t think twice about this plan and easily accepted the invite, I was so relieved!!

Getting to the Party without slipping

• On the facebook group, we planned for everyone to arrive 30 min before Nathan and I did to give us plenty of time to get there. I scheduled an Uber and we were on our way, but making sure Nathan wasn’t suspicious of who I was texting was a challenge! I kept switching back and forth from Instagram and texts quickly so he didn’t find out. I sent a quick reminder in the Facebook group when we were 5 min out letting everyone know to turn the lights out and get ready! When we pulled up, Nathan was questioning the number of cars, so I explained that Colton & Savanna’s neighbor was having a party and they parked near their house.

While walking up to the house, Nathan thought a few more people were inside than originally expected, but once we walked inside, he was fully in shock after everyone yelled SURPRISE!! Nathan couldn’t believe how many people were there for the party and was beyond thankful to see how many of his friends showed up for this surprise party! We ate food, danced and played plenty of pong before singing Happy Birthday and then finishing the night off with drinks and yummy food. Overall, the entire party was a huge success and made Nathan feel extra special. It was so humbling to see how many people could work together to pull off a special event like this that doesn’t happen every day and I’m so thankful for all the help I received while planning it!

Heres a huge THANK YOU to Nathan’s entire class and close friends who showed up for this party and a special thanks to Colton & Savanna for helping me throw a party Nathan will never forget! Here’s to 24 Nathan!!